Ajax (AR 6) - Naval Cruise Book

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AJAX outfitting-San Pedro, Ca., 1943 AJAX ' s first CO, Cdr. John Brown l iSi Initiation of Polywogs Royal Baby for AJAX ' s first equator cross- ing. {k Original Insignia- drawn by a Walt Disney Artist. Banjo player Eddie Peabody entertains aboard.

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The fourth and present AJAX (AR-6) is the second of the VULCAN class fleet of Repair Ships. In her beginning, AJAX had 18 officers and 700 men in her Repair Department along with an estimated crew of 2500 for those were the days of hot bunking, hammocks and sleeping where you worked. Since 1943, well over 20,000 men have served aboard AJAX . AJAX ' s keel was laid on 7 May 1941 by the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation at San Pedro, California. She was launched on 22 August 1942 and com- missioned 30 October 1943. Her sea trial was cut short and she was sent to Pearl Harbor. Arriving in Pearl Harbor on 16 December 1943, she attracted considerable attention since she was the first of the new fleet repair ships to join the Pacific Fleet, After completing her Pearl Harbor assignments AJAX departed on 26 January for FUNAFUTI, Ellice Islands. She crossed the equator for the first time enroute on 29 January and International Date Line on 31 January, with the traditional ceremonies on both occasions. Over 1000 men were initiated into the Domain of Neptunus Rex and into the Realm of the Golden Dragon by the small number of their shipmates who had previously crossed the two lines. In February 1944 AJAX was attached to service squadron 6 in Funafuti, which had ordered AJAX to convert the forward section at the forward end of the superstructure deck into a service squadron office, and to build staterooms down the starboard side. No sooner was the job completed than the AJAX was transferred to Service Squadron 10. Since Service Squad- ron 10 knew nothing of the changes, when AJAX arrived at Majuro to report to her new duty not a trace remained of the squadron office. It had mysteriously disappeared during the transit. During AJAX ' s early adventures in the South Pacific, rumors were circulating in San Pedro that she had been sunk by a Japanese submarine. The rumors even had the strike pinned down to frame 41 , starboard side. The rumors had it that there were few survivors and those who did survive were given Navy Crosses and spot promotions. The following is a quote from a letter written 19 July 1944 by Capt. John L. Brown, the fir st Commanding Officer of AJAX, Nothing of evil or horror has be- fallen us, all have been doing a magnificent job, all are well and all pray for the time when we will return to those whom we miss dearly. I am very proud to be the Commanding Officer of each and everyone on board this ship -so ended the rumors. On 13 June 1944 AJAX sailed for Eniwetok with other units of SERV- RON 10 to set up an advance repair base.

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She worked on battleships, cruisers and auxiliary ships through August. At one time during this period AJAX was assigned exten- sive jobs on 19 cruisers and nine battleships, in August of 1944 while at Eniwetok a cruiser came along side for repair work. Unknown to the AJAX the cruiser had bacillary dysentery aboard, which the AJAX crew picked up. The following is a quote from a crew member who was aboard AJAX at that time: At one time we had several hundred men on the sick list. Everybody took sulfaguanadyne as a preventive measure, the crew being given their pills in the cafeteria line. At first you could find lots of the pills on deck where men had ditched them. Then a man died, and the boys started using their pills. A second man died and they started stealing them from one another. In late August we were put under quarantine, the ship moved from Eniwetok to Kwajalein for quarantine and we were out of action as a repair ship for about six weeks . In May of 1945, while in Leyte Gulf, AJAX, along with the Jason, accomplished one of her most challenging jobs-repairing typhoon damage to USS BENNING- TON (CV-20). BENNINGTON had suffered severe damage to the for- ward section of her flight deck. The entire collapsed section of BEN- NINGTON ' S flight deck was cut away and replaced.